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Machinal (Royal National Theatre) | 
 enlarge | Author: Sophie Treadwell
Publisher: Nick Hern Books
Category: Book
List Price: $18.95
Buy New: $12.68
You Save: $6.27 (33%)
New (13) Used (16) from $8.96
Avg. Customer Rating:  10 reviews
Sales Rank: 71271
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 96
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.2
Dimensions (in): 5 x 0.5 x 0.1
ISBN: 1854592114
Dewey Decimal Number: 812.52
EAN: 9781854592118
ASIN: 1854592114
Publication Date: April 1, 1995
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Condition: Expedited shipping is not available for this item. Items are mailed via USPS media mail within 2 business days and should arrive 4-14 business days later.
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Product Description
Sophie Treadwell was a campaigning journalist in America between the wars. Among her assignments was the sensational murder involving Ruth Snyder, who with her lover, Judd Gray, had murdered her husband and gone to the electric chair. Out of this came MACHINAL, a powerful expressionist drama about the dependent status of women and the living hell of a loveless marriage. Successfully premiered on Broadway in 1928 with Clark Gable as the lover, the play was seen in London two years later, provoked a sensation in Tairov's version in Moscow in 1933, and was then largely forgotten until revivals in New York and London in the 1990s.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 5 more reviews...
 A disappointment December 1, 2007
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
I watched this play performed at a local college. The actors did a wonderful job bringing the story to life, however, as much as I enjoyed the presentation, the play itself was a failure in the message it attempted to convey.
I sigh and shake my head at this being considered a feminist play. For a woman to consider the main character anything other than a weak little girl is depressing.
The main woman agrees to marry a man she finds repulsive, never saying no to anything, not even saying no during their honeymoon, leaving us never knowing what would've happened if she had actually RESISTED this man she claims to hate. She has a baby, who she also hates and won't take care of. Then she sleeps with a guy that says from the beginning that he sleeps around a lot and that he's leaving to Mexico. Losing her lover to Mexico doesn't seem to faze her at all, instead, she giggles and asks if she can have his flower in the window.
Instead of divorcing her husband or doing anything about anything the way an intelligent, STRONG, woman would do, she accepts everything that comes at her, and complains about it the whole time. She complains about submitting when it is she who CHOOSES to submit.
Finally, she kills her husband, seeing this as the only solution? Honestly, are we really going to overglorify murder? Are we trying to justify a woman killing because she was too weak to ask for a divorce? It's insulting to the human being and insulting to our society to think that is commendable behavavior.
If this dumb girl is supposed to be a woman's role model, I feel bad for women everywhere.
Still relevant today January 4, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Sophie Treadwell's seminal play, whilst set in the late 1920s, continues to have relevance today. In following the plight of a girl who, through circumstances largely beyond her control, ends up in the electric chair, Treadwell reminds us of inequities that still exist in society: the differences between the Haves and the Have-Nots, the continuing struggle for women to be recognised in both an economic and social sense, and the constant battle of love versus convenience. Dramatically, her work offers a range of options for interpretation, and a multitude of challenges for daring actors. Grim, powerful and ultimately unforgettable.
A Feminist Play Ahead of its Time. December 30, 2005
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Having worked in the theatre, though I think more than that, being a fan of theatre and a student of literature, my take on reading plays is kind of odd. I usually dislike it. I have always felt that plays are meant to be seen and experienced. More to the point, the beauty of plays is the marriage of the playwright's vision with that of the director's and then watching this new product -- hey, let's go with the metaphor - this "baby" come into its own through the actors. Of course, when I do read a good play, I get to direct in my head and it's a totally different, yet enjoyable, experience in and of itself. I think this was a good play and I very much enjoyed reading it. This play, in particular, I found easy to read and while depressing, entertaining. It features some incredible insight to the nature and status of not only women in the 1920's, but the whole of the human condition. The main character, Helen or YOUNG WOMAN, is such a little mouse that it's a stretch to imagine her becoming so crazy with desperation that she'd jump from quivering wreck into an affair and then into murder. Young Woman's inner monologues, however, are fantastic and bridge the divide between who this character really is and whom she is forced to be. As far as reading the play, I would recommend it to anyone interested in expressionism or feminism.
 Heartrending and crushing July 8, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Less a 'feminist' play than a play about the human condition as a whole, Treadwell's 'Machinal' recalls the work of Ionesco, Strindberg and Pinter: the human being as pawn in a senseless and hellish society. The ending, in which Helen rebels against the abstract prayers of the jail's priest, recalls the conclusion of "The Stranger", although I would consider this a far superior work. By the conclusion we cannot help but feel for Helen, a shy but passionate woman rejected and imprisoned, essentially, by her dull husband, her needy mother, and her contemporaries. I can't say this is the most uplifting play I have ever read, but it is one of the most intense.
Great show of American expressionism! February 6, 2003
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Having taught this play a number of times at the college level, I find it one of the most accessable examples of expressionism available in print. It's great to read while watching a film like Metropolis (Fritz Lang's expressionist masterpiece). In reference to an earlier review, the play may seem simple and mundane, but when read in its historical context (and when seen in a brave production) it's what theatre is all about... engaging, moving, and socially/politically active. The fact that it's by a woman and about a woman, in a period dominated by the male perspective, simply makes it more fascinating.
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